Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera

12.19.2006

a slow day.... a good day... there should be more days like today

it was a good daygot out of bed earlyhad to get the boys up and active and out the door with their mother with military effieciencywhich anyone who knows two and five year old boys knows... there is no such thing as effiecieny when dealing with two and five year old boyslike directing a mulethe harder you pullthe greater resistence they show

yet... it was a good dayas much as I may have desired to go back to bed I did notinstead I finished my coffee and took brutus out for an extended hikewell... extended for a prework hikewe hit a section of the melvin hazen

soon my morning that could have sent me into work early had me rushing not to be late

on the bike wearing significantly more gear than the day prioras yesterday was summer and today it is feeling closer to winterwhile rolling down the main strip in mount pleasant I saw a small familiar form a few blocks aheadI chased the figure getting lucky with the lightsover spinning the single speed that is geared for dirt not for roadyet a long red light stalls her long enough for me to roll up just as she is starting to move again

it is libbey sheldon mother of four and stellar mountain biker two thirds of the way of her solid daily commuteto catch up I tag alongwe build on the conversations that we started on our two meetings just weeks prioras it turns out libbey's route takes her down through malcom xnot my usual routeapparently it is hers

the park is two levelswith a great number of terraces and a great number of stair connecting each terrace

a bit of a rocking horse ride on the rigid single speed for mebut a pretty bouncy ride for libbey as well... as she took it faster on her squishy rocky mountain double bangerI picked up the speed but kept things in controlthe 29er picks up fastthe clydesdale does not break to full stop with immediacy

the day went as many days do the days before christmasnot much activitynot much action

strolled at lunch with the camerathe sun dropped fast as it was a late lunchdid not get any shots that thrilled me

then a little more time at work only to get the green light to leave earlyleft early enough to get some time on the bikezipped around and across town on the surly karate monkey singlewas not moving to fastgot a taste of dirt where I coulddid not seek out playing superman and racing the traintried to avoid traffic as much as possible

got home earlycould have ridden morebut figured I would walk the dog before dinner and before I freed the babysitteroffered to the boys to go hikingpushed the issuedthe babysitter got to leave earlythe boys went hikingit was an unusual hikethe boys did not want to do what we think of as the rosemount loop that passes the fort and the water treeno...dean wanted to cross the street and move deeper into Rock Creek ParkI consulted with Grant on his willingness to hike furthergrantman was game

we hikeI kept the dog and the boys on the side of the street away from crazed commuter trafficwe crossed each street cautiously in a pack... daddy holding hands tightly and crossing safe and fastcommuters honk at the cars in front of themwondering why they are stopped at the stop sign

the boys were troopersbrutus got to dip into the creek just as he had at the start of his daythe boys wanted to hike the off camber trail along side the creekI took them inside towards klingle mansionby this point the petzel headlamp I was wearing was almost vitalgrantman requested a piggyback ride a few timesI joked with him on itthen offered to carry him after the next sectionwhen we hit the hills holding his hand was enoughwe looped back on a fireroadtaking a break on the pathall the while I was enjoying my children's observations and their questions

got home and called mommyshe was still heading home from workI asked if she wanted Phoshe thought it was a good ideaI ordered way too much Vietnamese food

after some clean up and some getting ready for bedthere was some N64 before bedtimewant to read this over... but there is one more set of photographs I want to play with

and some relaxation

sure I want this post to make sense...but I also want to put up my feet

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